Cheers With Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

Recently a great friend celebrated his birthday. To surprise him, I decided to turn his favorite cocktail into a cupcake! A must for any party, these gin and tonic cupcakes are stunning and surprisingly easy to make. Be careful when baking; the cake should be light and airy rather than hard and overcooked. The creamy frosting has a mild gin flavor, but feel free to add more or less booze to suit your tastebuds. My local market did not have citrus jellies, so I used sugar-coated lime slices as garnish. Homemade candied lime peel is another excellent option for garnish. To celebrate with your own gin and tonic cupcakes,

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit. With an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites in a large bowl with salt and cream of tartar until they are risen. Now beat in the sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, sprinkling it over the egg whites and beating about 20 seconds with each addition. Fold the sifted flour into the meringue in three stages, and then stir in the tonic water.

Arrange muffin paper baking cups inside a muffin tin and fill two thirds full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden on the surface and still springy to the touch. Remove and let cool.

Spoon mascarpone into a bowl and beat in the gin and then the syrup and tint it the palest green with a little food coloring. Fill a icing bag or ziploc with the tip cut off to frost the cupcakes.

Use a decorative toothpick to spear lime slices in sugar or jellied candies and insert one into each cupcake.

my housemates made these for my birthday as a surprise. I'm a big fan of gin and tonics and I can safely say that they tasted amazing. They added lots more gin to the icing and it was perfect. The sponge was amazing, very light and airy and delicate (if you squash it it shrinks by about 1/2 and does not spring back)... try it, you won't be disappointed!

4 years

The beaters look soooo yummy.
But I suppose a person would have to be over the legal drinking age to lick them.

4 years

I originally had the trouble that my cakes flattened when cooked, but I discovered that it was because I had whisked in the flour not folded it in. Whisking breaks up the egg white structure and so the cakes lose all shape. I preferred to make water-frosting using Confectioners sugar, gin and a touch of lime juice. Nice otherwise!

5 years

I agree with the above, this recipe was a disaster. I doubled the recipe and I still could only fill 12 cupcake liners 1/3 of the way full. As the cupcakes cooled, they collapsed to a fraction of their size.The gin and tonic taste is non-existent...just didn't work out all around. How on earth is 1/4 cup of flour supposed to make 12 cupcakes? I ended up trashing them and instead making lemon cupcakes with a gin and lime juice frosting. I topped that with lime zest and gummies. Not too much like the drink, but at least edible unlike this recipe.

5 years

This is one of the worst recipes I have ever made! My boss loves gin and tonics and I thought this would be a perfect recipe to take in...BIG MISTAKE! They come out looking nothing like the picture and there is absolutely no taste. The frosting is all curdled and no matter how much I beat it, the liquid just oozes out of the mascarpone. Oh, one batch will only make 6-8 normal size cupcakes